How to Use Direct Response Card Decks as a Market Research and Lead Generation Tool

Market research specialists have discovered a new
tool which enables them to quickly identify target market cells,
measure buyer acceptance, test new product or service concepts
quickly and inexpensively and survey market
characteristics...the Direct Response Card Deck.

For two to four cents per contact, the researcher can now gather
market intelligence from both specialized vertical
markets (lawyers, doctors, etc.) or broad based
horizontal markets (all marketing executives across industry
lines). In addition, these same markets can now be tested in
such confined geographical areas as business executives in
Hawaii or professionals in Minneapolis.

Not only does the marketer overcome one of the traditional
problems in research...test sizes...he or she also reaps the
huge advantage of accurate measurability and accountability.
Since all responses can be directed right back to the research
organization, market feedback is both quick and accurate.

Many firms have difficulty in obtaining statistically
significant samplings through traditional channels because of
budget restrictions.

It's not uncommon for important strategy decisions to be made on
the basis of sampling as few as 2,000 names out of a universe of
several million potential buyers. This is risky at best. It
could lead to marketing disaster based on serious sampling
error, or wrong conclusions drawn from insufficient data.

With direct response card packs, it is now possible to test or
survey as many as 100,000 potential buyers for as little as
$2,000 or less. For the research or direct marketing consultant
this results in meaningful figures which are both statistically
significant and forecastable.

Proper analysis of this larger sampling should result in
strategy decisions which are more accurate, more meaningful,
more valid and more profitable for the direct marketer.

The ability to order and conduct true A/B (or more) split run
tests of offers, prices, etc. has important implications for the
creative team.

The marketing intelligence gathered through card packs can be a
valuable road map to success. Critically important data,
discovered through card deck advertising, can determine the
answers to such questions as:

Have
we targeted to the correct audience?

Is the audience

responsive to the degree necessary to maximize potential
profitability?

Do we have the right combination of
offer, price, copy, graphics, headlines, terms, etc.?

Are the response/profit characteristics such that they
justify testing such other direct response media as direct mail,
space or broadcast advertising?

Is there potential for a
variation of this product/service to be marketed to a closely
related audience?

What is the potential for back-end
profits from related item sales?

Are we barking up the
wrong tree? Should we cut our losses now and thank our luck
stars that we were able to discover, inexpensively, that we were
wrong?

While the advantage of card decks
as a market research tool outweigh the disadvantages, there are
some restrictions you need to be aware of:

1. The card
itself is small (about 3"x5") and as such restricts your ability
to test such things as long copy and multiple option offers.
Some decks provide larger format sizes with the ability to do
fold-over inserts which provide more space, but these options
are at a substantial premium in price. The small space can work
to your advantage because it forces you to limit your testing to
those factors that have the most profound affect on response and
profitability...i.e. offer and price, for example.

2. Color reproduction, if it is important to your product,
is not always the best. The conventional .007 Hi Bulk paper
stock normally used in card decks is not the best choice for
color printing. Most deck publishers, however, offer a coated
stock option and you may find it useful.

3. Response rates are,on the average, lower in card decks
(1/4th of one percent to 1 percent) than they might be in
a free standing direct mail package. On the surface this may
appear to be a disadvantage. In fact it is not.

Your goal in market research/testing is to obtain statistically
significant data across the broadest sampling
possible...consistent with budgetary limits.

Card decks allow you to achieve this goal, precisely. It's much
better to have a 1/4th of 1% response from a 100,000 name
universe (250 responses) than to have a 12.5% (250 responses)
from a small 2,000 name test cell. Although the total numbers
are the same, the former example gives you a truer picture of
market conditions and possible product/service acceptance.

In summation, we have found that direct response card decks, if
used properly, can be ideal market research tools. Card decks
are inexpensive to use. They give quick accurate and projectable
results. They reduce the risk of sampling error, and the
resulting data is both statistically significant and inherently
more valid.

There's only one way to know for sure...test it!

About the author:
Thom Reece is the CEO and Senior Consultant for On-Line
Marketing Group... His website... On-Line Marketing Resource
Center ...( www.e-comprofits.com ) is visited by thousands
of internet marketers daily. Thom can be reached at:
808-929-7377, Fax: 808-929-8711, or by email at:
thom@e-comprofits.com